In this paper, we examine the role that hotels play in the urban economies of central business districts (CBDs). To illustrate this, we explore the biography of the Sydney Hilton, an iconic modernist building which opened in 1975 and was recently totally refurbished and rebranded. We argue that...

In der Stadtökonomie ergeben sich die Formen der sektoralen und der ringförmigen Stadtstruktur als mögliche Ergebnisse der Segregation von demographisch verschiedenen Haushalten mit Nachbarschaftsexternalitäten. Rose-Ackerman [1973] postuliert, dass die Ringstruktur die Folge der Minimierung...

It has been hypothesized that differentially applied environmental regulations create pollution havens, as firms will choose to invest in countries with lax environmental standards. Using a theoretical model of pest control adoption and an empirical spatial equilibrium model, we examine one such...

The purpose of this study is to identify key institutional determinants of firm emergence and growth. We do this using various types of data from Sweden. A characterization of a number of institutions and policy measures shows that they are likely to have contributed to an environment that...

Empirical evidence strongly suggests that R&D increases a firm's “absorptive capacity” (its ability to absorb spillovers from other firms) as well as contributing directly to profitability. We explore the theoretical implications of this. We specify a general model of the absorptive capacity...

In this paper we consider the case for subsidies towards firms which generate R&D spillovers in open economies. We show that in the presence of strategic behaviour by firms many expected results are overturned. Local R&D spillovers to other domestic firms may justify an R&D tax rather than a...

Traditional economic wisdom claims that - while global economic integration is beneficial for economic performance - a country's trade specialization pattern has no impact on its economic performance. In this paper, we seek to cast doubt on this aspect of mainstream economics using a very...